Chapter 6: Uncovered truths?

The next morning I went over things Kiira and the rest learned about the girls from yesterdays slave auction.

The foxkin girl, which is currently five years old came from so-called [Golden fox tribe]. Due to her hairs, eyes and tail being mix of silver and black colores, she was treated as disaster bringer so when slave traders came, she was frist to be sold. Her name is Amane and she is very docile. While she was in the captivity, she met with Daika.

Speaking of which, while she is tigerkin who are physically strong, she is mage, that's maybe due to her mothers side which was magicaly gifted foxkins. Also she has all basic magic skills plus ice magic.

Next is eighteen years old pink haired Rabbitkin girl named Luna. She's not really strong, but she have making of an all rounder.

The five Finfolk girls are from same village which was under jurisdiction of Sea dragon temple. But after it's destruction, the village was raided on numerous ocations and they were forced to leave it behind. Sadly, they were attacked by strong magical beast and when they managed to escape, the slavers got them. Their names are Hiika, Riika, Buuka, Viel and Diina. All of them have membranes between their fingers, except for thumbs. Also their sharp eyes and teeth makes me think of Piranhas.

Next are the dragonfolks. Two volcanic ones, like Idra, and one earth. The volcanic dragonfolk girls are something like mortal enemies of each other. Apparently they were fighting over same man, but he said he will choose after he returns from war... and died there... why am I not surprised.

Be it as it may, they still hate each other and being enslaved and raped together didn't help it much.

Still, in the end they are both strong and even capable of using dragon breath and fire magic. Their names are Verso and Epu.

The Earth dragonfolk is actually a boy. No one noticed until he started refusing to enter the bath. Anyway his name is Balro and he is little brother of the man Verso and Epu were fighting over. He himself said that he like more woman which are less hot-headed then normal Volcanic dragonfolk girls. Also he seems to be the type of innocent guy to goes with the flow.

Also it seems he took a liking to Taru, but he was quickly shown that she's already someone elses when she used her skill [Scale cover] and thus revealed her silver scales on neck and back of her hands.

Suprisingly, the change of color of scales on the front of the body indicates with Earth and Volcanic dragonfolk the same thing. Volcanic dragonfolks turn golden, Earth dragonfolks turn black and Sky dragonfolk, which are only one who can fly, turn blue.

And now, finally we have two last members of the group. A pair of catkins, which are apparently already married. This pair was so weaken yesterday that they fell asleep in my office when we came home and we send them to take short bath in the morning. They are gray haired, but they are barely twenty years old, they have blue eyes and are really nimble. The girls name is Mike and the boy is named Noir, becouse his father was a black catkin. He also told me that black catkins are usually called unlucky, becouse not a single one was able to evolve during warriors blessing ceremony for as long as he knows.

"So what do you want to do with them?" Kiira asked while sitting next to me on a sofa.

"Uh... I think, that Idra should join with our warriors, but his personality may be troubling... As for the girls... I want to make them into maids, but not everyone is suitable for it..."

"Yes, it it as you say, especially Verso and Epu, the volcanic dragonfolk girls, have strong distaste towards men," Taru added.

"Wel, you can't blame them, given what they were through," I shrugged and took a look at the papers again.

"The dwarven brothers will join gardeners for now. Amane, Luna, Balro and the finfolk girls should join the servant staff. Mike and Noir said that they can take care of vegetable fields so we should let them do that... and the two volcaninc girls..."

"Let's make them maids too. They have some flaws, but it's nothing we couldn't polish," Alette said while sipping her tea.

In that moment, there was a knock and Setto came in with 'pardon the intrusion.'

"Count-sama a message from royal palace came," he said as he handed me two letters.

"The first one is from king... he wants to talk about the lessons for Victina."

"And the other one?" the girls asked while smiling.

"It's from Victina, she wants to know when I will come to take her out for that... date..." as I finished saying that, the girls started to direct their anger at the list in my hands.

Yep... I have to think about what kind of date I will take them on... for now... Warp!

I left the place with both letters in hand and warped to stables.

"Rikedo-san? Are you here?" I called out one of the sea dragonfolk soldiers, who was taking care of the horses.

"Aah! Count-sama! It's rare to see you here, do you need a horse?"

"I would like a carriage to be prepared, I was urgently called to the royal palace so I have to get there fast."

"I understand, I will prepare the fastes horses we have. Oh, that reminds me, which carriage would you like to use? The black one or the blue one?"

"The black one."

"Understood, it will be prepared in a minute," Rikedo left with a bow.

I went over my plan of training for Victina and before I even noticed it, the carriage was standing before me.

Soon after boarding, we left for the castle. What surprised me the most was that when we arrived at gates, the guards urged us to don't stop and go strightly to the king.

Wander what happened...

I left Rikedo with the carriage and in corner of my eye I saw him talking with one of the maids... hoo? Do I sniff romance in the air, Rikedo-san?

At the doors, butler with lime green hairs was waiting for me. His name is Gaulok and he's a pixie. They are also called long-eared fairy, Latoona, Galta and by many other names, but they call themselves pixies. They have buterfly-like wings and even their bodies are mainly green colored. It's said that having a pixie in your home is better then good luck charm as their [Pixie dust] skill can naturaly dispell weak curses.

I was silently thinking if I could use the dust for magic items. Well, I got quite a lot of cursed items from dungeon's treasure chests I would really like to see what would happen if I could dispell it...

"Your majesty, Count Dragonrose have came in response to your summons," Gaulok knocked on doors and after recieving permition, he let me in.

"I, Count Leonard Hirano Dragonrose came to respond to your summons your majesty," I bowed when the doors clacked behind me.

"Ah, keep it casual, Leo," the king waved his hand and urged me to sit in front of him.

Except the king, in the room was also prime minister, Count Kilten and my father.

"Well Leo, I called you for two things today. One is related to school and second is related to you tutoring my daughter."

"I understand. We will talk about Lady Victina first am I correct?"

"Why 'Lady'?!" angry girls voice came through doors as the said doors burst open and Victina came through them, followed closely by Lulu.

"We are engaged so either call me Victina, or Darling," Victina demanded from me with finger dangerously close to my lips.

Whoa, that's some serious killing intent your majesty...

"A-alright, I will call you Victina then..." I got little sweaty.

Victina sit next to me and clung to my arm. Lulu, on the other hand, stood firmly behind her. But still, I could feel her fingers in gloves touching my shoulder.

"Ahem, Your majesty," the Prime minister cleared his throat, "It would be better to show them the report."

"Ah, yes... So, you three were all accepted into S class. The information was supposed to be made public tomorrow, but becouse Victina is attending this year, we got the roosters for S class one day earlier. Here," the king throw bunch of papers on table. And sure enough, Me, Victina and Lulu were both in top five. To add quickly, Taru, Kiira, Nina, Alette, William and Victina's brother Rinbell were there too.

"I see, so you want to start the training as soon as possible, is that correct?"

"Yes!" Victina smiled happily.

"Well, before that, look at the other paper," the king smiled, which worried me a little.

"Hm, what is this? Damage report?" I tilted my head.

"Please read it," the king continued to smile.

"After finishing the testing of group D we checked the anti-magic circles in the room. Lord Dragonrose, have used strong space magic spell called [Space rupture], said spell annihilated magic resistant dummy leaving pile of scraps behind. We checked anti-magic circles which protects the building from collapse due to magic overuse and we found out that they were severly damaged, henceforth we can't recomend using said building until said circles are repaired."

"Do I need to say something else?" the king smiled.

"Sir Dragonrose, you may not be aware of it, but said anti-magic circles were designed by first king especially for this academy. And even though we have recorded how to remake parts of them in case of some kind of damage, a complete destruction is unheard of. Also, the circles need to be recharged every once in a while by someone with royal blood," the prime minister explained.

"I, I see..."

"Last time recharge was needed, entire royal family was switching places in doing it for five days," the king smiled, "And that was only halfway depleated."

"Could you make some replacement for it?" Victina's eyes sparkled.

"Um, if I—" before I could even ask for picture of the circle, Victina was already pushing it against my face.

"So? Will you help us with our little trouble?" the king smiled coldly.

"Uh... this... is it really it? ...I don't want to be rude but it's quite a mess... these symbols should be here, not here. This curve should be directed the other way... no matter how I look at it... hm... wait... what if... well, there goes nothing «Split»"

I activated spell and the magic circle starting spliting in layers.

"Whoa... this is unbelievable..." Count Kilten suddenly spoke up.

"I thought that it was weird for magic circles to be so messy and still work, but it seems it's actually three circles stacked on each other."

"Flik, I have a hard time beliving your son has something to learn in academy... hey, what if I made him earl right away and we call it a day eh?"

"To crack the code of the first king's spell so fast... is he really…" Father completly ignored the king, mumbling to himself.

"Well, to be honest, I recently aquired tome that worked with simmilar theory... haha," I scratched the back of my head.

"Sho amazin'" the princess cried happily next to me as I canceled the [Split] spell making the circle return to it's previous state.

"I need to get better too," Lulu whispered to herself behind us.

"Leo, I never heared of such spell, did you make it?" father asked me.

"Yes, I originaly had problem with damaged meat, this spells base use is to split apart diferent parts of one target. Like meat and bones. With magical beast, it can separate their magic stones from their bodies, that's especially useful with those type of beasts that have corrosive blood."

"But couldn't it be used for example on humans? You could kill someone with this spell," the king and prime minister looked worriedly.

"Yes, that's certainly a good concern, but the truth is that this spell have some special runes in it, which limits it's use only to inanimate objects... ...did... I said something weird?" I had to ask as I saw their mouths hung open.

"So, you can limit the targets of the spell... while constructing it? ...just who are you?"

Kings question surprised me a little so I answeared naturaly: "Leonard Hirano Dragonrose, son of Flik and Sareen Netrose, magic researcher of sorts."

"Alright, royal order, show us your status, Leo," the king's face got little murky.

"Father! Asking to see one's status is forbiden! You—"

"It's fine, Victina. I understand your fathers concerns. If someone whiped up one new spell after another, I would be also suspicious. Here take a look."

Name: Leonard Hirano Dragonrose
Level: 53 [58]
Race: Majin (unawakened)
Titles: Third son, Father’s boy, Count, Prodigy, Natural enemy of monsters, Favorite child of Skill god, Destroyer, Natural predator, Dragon slayer, [Reincarnator, Apostole of Skill god]

Skills:

Unique: Spell weaver [King of greed, King of wisdom, Loyalty, Indomitable, Lord’s ambition, Soul binding]

Supreme: Auto-heal (9), Magic power armor (9), Iron stomach (4) [Fly (7), Water manipulation (8), Water walking (8), Invisibility (6), Crate wing (7), Dragon breath (3), Nature manipulation (5)]

Exra rare: Increased mana recovery (10), Increased stamina recovery (10), Magic manipulation (10), Space magic (10), Hide presence (10), Sense presence (10), Shock absorbtion (6), Light step (7), Shadow walk (6), Air walk (6), Intimidation (10), Angel flash technique (10), Demon sword technique (10) [Void magic (8), Petrification gaze (10), Nature magic (6)]

Rare: Fire magic (10), Water magic (9), Wind magic (9), Earth magic (10), Ice magic (10), Lightning magic (10), Item box (10), Transmute (10), Apprisal (7), Analyze item (7) [Metal magic (10)]

Uncommon: Quick feet (10), Etique (10), Hereditary (10), Taming (3), Sense temperature (8), Iron skin (10), Charge (9), Ostilian slashing technique (10), Unmovable Kastena technique (10), Mist sword technique (10) [Paralyze spore (5), Sleep spore (5), Sticky thread (8)]

Common: Leap (10), Kick (10), Hand to hand combat (10), Swordsmanship (10), Animal training (6), Marksmanship (10), Keen hearing (10), Spearmanship (10), Deffence shell (10), Long sight (10), Cooking (8) [Dissolve (9), Metalwork (10)]

Blessings: Magic goddess (8), War god (8), Merchant god (8) [9], Skill god (8) [10], Alchemy god (8), [Water goddess (8), Fire god (7), Wind god (6), Earth goddess (5), Goddess of Love (4)]

I hide most of my blessings, true level and skills I got from monsters, except for those that could naturaly appear among humans.

"Wha—" everyone, even King was surprised by what I showed them.

"Leo really is amazing!" Victina claped her hands.

"So Leo leveled up... I see, I need to put in more work to catch up," Lulu whispered.

"What is this? Angel flash technique, Demon sword technique, Mist sword technique... aren't those sword styles that the Knightly kingdom teaches as their secret styles?" Father, naturaly gifted swordsman was instantly interested in the techniques.

"To be honest about these techniques, I found diary of Gavin Hirano Netrose. That diary was also some kind of sealed Skill book. When I finished reading it, those techniques were added to my skills by themselves."

"Yes, that's what Skill books do, after all, they are predecestors of skill orbs," the king explained with sour look.

"Hold on Leo, if you speak of First Netrose, did you see a magic sword there?"

"Yes, actually I saw about ninety swords, fifty spears, twenty bows, one hundread eighty eight wands, ninety staves and we still didn't open around sixty crates."

"Wha–?!"

"It seems like our ancestor had a hobby of collecting magic items. I even saw gloves with Life drain enchantment, though, they have seal on them so they are practicaly only fancy gloves right now..."

"Y-your majesty... one more thing..." Count Kilten suddenly spoke up, "Among sir Dragonrose's titles... is [Favorite child of Skill god]... does that mean the... Skill god who never gave blessing to human before... finds sir Dragonrose, interesting?"

"Skill god?! One of the Four Great gods?!"

'Oh shit… I forgot that one…'

If I remember correctly, [Four Great gods] reffers to Creator goddess, twin goddesses of Life and Death and finally the Skill god. This name came from stories of creation of the world and first people to walk on it.

"Leo... just who are you?"

"Leonard Hirano Dragonrose, son of Flik and Sareen Netrose. Count of Ostillian kingdom, and a magic researcher of sorts."

"Do you mean any harm to our kingdom?" King's eyes shone with golden light.

Is he using his unique skill? The Higher Authority? I don't feel oppressed like last time, interesting…

"No."

"Have you ever thought about using your skills against people?"

"No?"

"Do you love my daughter?"

What is this all of the sudden?

"Yes, she is really lovely and I hold time when we discus magic together dear."

Victina's grip of my hand grew stronger and Lulu's grip tighten too, but from different reason.

"Eh, fine, you may go now," king released me, so I excused myself, only to be followed by Lulu and Victina.

♦

"So, what do you think, Count Kilten?"

"The eyes of sir Dragonrose are definitely same as I saw yesterday, but they seem to miss some spark in them."

"So your [See through] didn't worked?"

"Yes."

The time rewind back to previous night in count's mind. He was ordered to sieze one shop's owner who was supposed to be in cahoots with Golden Quinche group. That was when he found dead bodies of guards, all of them turned to stone.

When he entered hidden underground room, he found masked man and people he was supposed to capture already tied down.

The skill, [See through] allowed him to notice that no one had skills. But what terrified him the most was the masked man. He had no name, no titles, no skills, no level and no blessings. Only thing he was able to remember about the man was his greenish silver eyes which shone like emeralds in the dim light.

"I am sorry to say it, but I belive sir Dragonrose is still hiding something," count bowed to the king.

"Flik, what do you think? He's your son after all."

"It's true that Leo was always different from his siblings, or any other children. He almost never cried, he was curious about the most basic things... maybe only if I compared him to Kiira, he would look normal."

"Do they have some kind of special relationship?"

"Well, Kiira and Ruzu too, were originally slaves I bought to keep him company, but from the first day, Kiira and Leo had different kind of relationship then what would be normal between slave and master. I belive that Ruzu once said that they look like old pair that went through a lot together."

"Brother if I may, what if we showed him that thing?" the prime minister stroke his beard as he spoke to the king.

"Ah, that huh?" the king sunk into thoughts as he looked out of the window where Leo was instructing Victina and showing her some kind of space magic that made him shone with purplish light.

"I guess it's worth a try, alright, let's call him in in five days. Victina will be with her grandmother at that time. I hope we can keep her in the dark… I senced no falsehoods in his words earlier, when talking about her…"

"I wonder sometimes... is Leo amazing becouse he's my son, or becouse of something else?"

"You haven't spoke about it with Sareen?"

"No your highness. Although it's true that we once thought that he may be reincarnation of the Mage of the south."

"Power to create spells, Space magic no one else was able to comprehend, all basic atribute magic of unpredictable power... he may be strongest person on this continent... his training of those Sea dragonfolks was probably just an excuse for something else, if not then he have one of the strongest retainers to date."

The king never was an idealist. His first war, in which he lost his older brother, happened when he was only ten years old. Ever since then, wars or small scale rebbelions jumped up every now and then. Leo was first person in last twenty years to get noble title higher then baronet (second lowest title) for his strenght.

"I belive it will be fine," prime minister said as he was looking out of the window where Leo just demonstrated use of short distance teleportation in a mock battle against Lulu. Both of the kids down there were smiling happily.

♦

"This was a good work out, we definitely have room for growth. Victina, Lulu it was a pleasure," I bowed to the girls slumped on the ground in exhaustion.

"When you use up all your mana and stamina, the recovery rate naturaly spikes up. So during next training days I will drain all your magic and stamina. Also I prohibit usage of potions for recovery of the two."

"Huh, you are quite a hellish instructor Leo," Lulu said while taking deep even breaths to quickly regain her energy.

"A question. How exactly will this help us?"

"How? Well, I want you to get skills called Increased mana recovery and Increased stamina recovery they are really hard to get but they are useful."

The girls looked at each other sadly.

"Well, Kiira was able to pick this skill up in two months so I quessed that you could do it in one... seems I was wrong," as I said that, the fire returned to their eyes.

"You can bet we will, Leo! In one month we will have at least one of those two skills!" Lulu rised up her fist and Victina nodded alongside her.

They are so easy...

"I'm glad you are fired up, but you should rest for today," I waved at the maids which came and took them to their rooms.

What to do now? I have about three hours until sun set... Well let's get home first.

Our lives returned to normal and me with the girls continued our attack on Golden Quinche. I got some new skills. Especailly magic edge was the most welcomed one, becouse even though I understood it, I wasn't able to maintain it. Maybe it was becouse of my neverending usage of gun, where I just had to charge magic and shoot. With magic edge I had to charge, maintain and keep even around entire sword.

My other theory was that using pure magic power was impossible for me, becouse I always changed the atribute I was releasing with Magic manipulation.

"Count-sama, message from the royal palace came, your presence is required as soon as possible."

"Hm? That sounds urgent. Kiira, Taru, come with me. Something tells me that this will be important."

"Yeah, I'm going as a guard," Kiira nodded.

"I will the use same excuse," Taru smiled and took her new enchanted cape. "Anyway, how do I look?"

"As stunning as always," I planted a kiss on her forehead and left the room with the all flustered Taru behind me.

"Hey me too!"

Huuu, my face is so hot...

We boarded the carriage and went on our way.

When we arrived at the palace, we spotted a difference.

"There are a lot of soldiers, don't you think?" Kiira said and hide her sword in Storage-enchanted ring I gave everyone.

"We better stay sharp," Taru fasten her necklace with enchant for quick chant.

"Don't be so much of a worryrats, maybe they have some kind of training."

"Leo, you can be so lax sometimes."

"Everything will be fine, there's no way they would try to attack us," I yawned and smiled as I was looking out of the window, "Making us enemies is illogical, after all."

We made our way to the reception room, where King, prime minister, knight captain, Count Kilten and my father were already waiting.

"Finally you came Leo, I have something to discuss with you."

The king push black book towards me. "Let's call it payment for the training."

"Your majesty, I don't require any payment. Advancement of space magic and smile of miss Victina is everything I need."

"Well, that sounds very nice, but I would be glad if you took at least a little look. It may help you with fixing of the anti-magic circle."

"Well, if you don't mind," I took the book and opened it.

Sure enough, there were many spells I never heard of, but the book was also something of a diary.

"First kings diary?"

"So you can read it," the king smiled.

"Hm?"

"Leo look at the letters," Kiira looked over my shoulder.

"Ah, I see," I smiled and showed the book to Taru as well.

"No way, it's japanese!" Tarus eyes widened.

"Yeah, I never though we would see this here as well," Kiira nodded.

"Yeah, it seems like the first king was summoned here around six hundred years before us, earths time."

"Us? Who are you really Leo?" the king's eyes narrowed.

"Well, there is no denying that I am child of Flik and Sareen."

"I-Is that true?"

"Don't worry father. If I borrow words of god of Skill, 'We placed your soul to a soulless body when we reincarnated you.' Me, Taru and Kiira are all reincarnated this way."

"Wait, did you say soulless body?"

"I belive that there was no soul in this body from the begining, which made it possible for gods to place me in it. Also, I don't want to anything I said here to made it out."

"I can understand that, so is that the reason for you recieving the [Favorite child] title?" the king asked.

"Um, no, I recieved that title during our fight with that demonized dragon."

"D-demonized dragon?!"

"Count Kilten, details about the dragon have been kept secret from the public for very special reasons. You should keep this a secret too," King reminded the count.

"Understood your highness! I shall keep this secret even in grave!" the count saluted.

"Leo, let me ask again, do you plan to do harm to this kingdom in any way?" king asked and I strighten my pose and seriously said.

"I do not. I love this country and I call it my home. If someone would try to do harm to my home and family," I relaxed and activated intimidation, "I would not spare them."

"Urh... this intensity... he really is Sareen's son all right," the prime minister started sweating buckets.

"I see your resolve. So you will leant us helping hand?"

"If crisis befalls our kingdom, I will do my utmost to help it."

"Alright you may go."

We left the room and father started talking all of the sudden.

"If I can ask, you knew each other over there as well?" father spoke criptically in order to not let any of the maids here know what we were talking about.

"Yes, we all were good friends, but those two were extra good friends, maybe becouse they were together sice they were little, but nothing could seperate those two, ever," Taru answeared just as vaguely.

"That would explain a lot," father laughed little sourly, "seems like the rest have a hard way to go."

Soon we made it to our carriage and father climbed on with us sending his carriage ahead to my mansion.

The carriage started moving and I bowed my head to father.

"Dad, I'm sorry about not telling you anything about this. I thought you would think I was crazy or something worst... could you please keep it a secret from mom too?"

"Huuu, I understand your point and will not talk about this to Sareen."

"Thank you father. I can't imagine how devastated mother would be if she found out her child was originally a soulless body."

"We thank you too," Kiira and Taru bowed too.

"No worries. Anyway, does anyone else know about your secret? What about Goli and Ruzu?"

"I never said anything to my sister, but as far as Ruzu goes..." Taru gave me a look.

"I wouldn't say she knows, but I'm sure she knows we aren't normal."

"I see. Good."

Our relationship didn't changed since that day, and when all was said and done, we returned to our regular lives.

"Uh... I hope everything will be normal now..."

"You know that last time you said that a dragon appeared right?" Kiira looked up as she tighten tie of my uniform.

"You're too pesimistic you know?"

"Well, for someone who is supposed to deliver speach in front of entire class, upperclassmen, teachers and parents you are suprisingly calm," Taru tried to make me nervous.

"Oh, please. Remember I was part of a theathre club just one year before joining you two for the gaming club."

"Yeah, I forgot about that one," Kiira suddenly had dark murky light in her eyes.

"Well, let's get going," I patted her head with a bright smile.

♦

Meanwhile in the private room of the Disciplinary comitee, all five permanent members were present.

"So these are our potencial new members, is that correct?" black haired man pushed up his mithril rimmed glasses.

"Two royals, Sword Saintess, Rising star Dragonrose and his two closest associates, Telepathy skill holder, elven duke's heir, Lionin royalty from Beastman kingdom, Foxkin, vampire royalty... isn't this year little bit stacked?" Lionin boy with bulky, mascular body rised his eyebrow.

"And that's exacly why we will go look at the opening ceremony today," the captain smiled wolfishly.

"Yea, leave it to captn', and 'er crazy," blonde haired girl with tiny white scales nodded. She was of rare race called Sky dragonfolk who are only dragonfolks who can fly and use [Create wing] skill.

"Fufufu, I'm looking forward to working with you, Leonard Dragonrose. I will have you join my disciplinary comitee, heheheh."

With those words Alaia Hei-do Génin, daughter of knight captain Aisha Ha-nou Génin, looked out of the window where the students were gathering.